This invention relates to an auxiliary compact disc storage case which can be used as a disc transporting case and as a storage magazine of a compact disc auto changer. The invention further relates to a compact disc auto changer in combination with such an auxiliary disc storage case.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a compact disc auto changer with which the auxiliary compact disc storage case in accordance with the invention may be used.
A housing 1 houses two vertical rows or stacks of disc storage magazines 2 which accommodate compact discs 10.
Below the magazine stacks are disposed playback units 3 and 3'. A carrier member 4 is located between the two stacks of the magazines and is vertically displaceable to allow compact discs to be carried between the playback units 3, 3' and the discs storage magazines 2.
In general, each stack of the magazines 2 includes four magazines preferably and each magazine holds forty five compact discs.
In this CD auto changer, the vertically displaceable carrier member moves vertically between the magazines and the playback units to take compact discs out of the magazines, or to insert the discs into the magazines.
In general, compact discs used in the CD auto changer are packaged individually by the manufacturer, and subsequently inserted into the CD auto changer manually by a user. This manual insertion may take up to 3 hours if all 360 magazine locations are to be filled. Should the CD auto changer break down, removing and replacing the CDs may well be more time consuming than the repair itself. A further significant cost to the manufacturer arises from the requirement that the CD's be individually packaged.